War-risk insurance premiums for ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz have surged by more than 1,000%. The situation in one of the world’s most critical maritime chokepoints has become exactly that.

Allianz SE, Europe’s largest insurer, is sounding the alarm that the insurance industry is staring down a wave of major claims tied to vessel damage from the ongoing Iran conflict. At least nine tankers have already been hit, multiple insurers have canceled or repriced war-risk coverage entirely, and the financial ripple effects are spreading well beyond the Persian Gulf.

The damage so far

The conflict escalated sharply after US and Israeli forces launched strikes on Iranian sites on February 28, 2026, prompting retaliatory attacks from Tehran. Since then, the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway through which roughly a fifth of the world’s oil passes, has become a live combat zone for commercial shipping.

At least nine tankers have been reported damaged in the conflict zone. Among them is the Honduran-flagged Nova, struck by drone attacks.

Munich Re, the world’s largest reinsurer, has already recorded approximately €90 million in losses directly linked to the war. Standard marine insurance policies generally exclude war perils, which means the losses are concentrated in the specialty war-risk market.

Starting in early March 2026, multiple insurers moved to cancel or reprice war-risk cover for Strait of Hormuz transits. Without valid war-risk coverage, vessels can be denied port entry, financing can be pulled, and cargo contracts can be voided.

Allianz sees broader economic fallout

Allianz Commercial, the insurer’s specialty and commercial arm, has been actively addressing the maritime industry’s exposure through webinars and direct advisories.

The insurer has warned that instability from the conflict could push more than 15,000 firms globally into insolvency. Over half of those at-risk companies are concentrated in Asia, where economies are tightly coupled to maritime trade routes running through the Strait of Hormuz.

The 1,000%-plus spike in war-risk premiums means a shipping company that was paying, say, 0.05% of hull value for a single transit might now be looking at 0.5% or more. For a supertanker worth hundreds of millions of dollars, those costs get passed along to charterers, then to commodity traders, then to refiners, and eventually to consumers.

What this means for investors

Munich Re’s €90 million figure is a floor, not a ceiling. Allianz, despite being the one issuing the warnings, is itself exposed through its commercial and specialty lines.

Shipping equities and logistics firms with heavy Middle East route exposure face a double squeeze: higher operating costs from insurance repricing and potential revenue disruption if cargo gets rerouted or delayed.

The insolvency warning from Allianz deserves particular attention from credit investors. If 15,000 additional firms are at risk globally, with a heavy Asian concentration, that implies stress in high-yield credit markets and trade finance. Banks with significant trade finance books in Asia-Pacific could see non-performing loan ratios tick higher.

The key variable to watch is duration. Even after the Houthi attacks in the Red Sea began easing, premiums took months to normalize. The Strait of Hormuz situation is orders of magnitude more consequential, and the insurance industry’s willingness to absorb that risk at any price is not guaranteed.